Re: /var/spool/mail/user missing

[Mark Wagnon <mwagnon1@home.com>]

On 11/23/99 03:55PM, David S. Jackson wrote:
> 
> First, are you sure you can send mail?  What tests have you run? Is this a
> first-time configuration, or have you gotten mail to work before?
> 

Yes, I can send without problems. I've just been retrieving with
Netscape (and leaving the mail on the server) until I figure this out.


> Second, how do you retrieve mail?  Does the mail even make it to
> /var/spool/mail/$USER?
> 

Normally I use fetchmail and just run it as a daemon. This is a new
install, so I just copied the .forward, .fetchmailrc, and procmail
related files over. After the installation (but not before I tried to
retrieve some mail) I noticed that there was no mail folder under
/var/spool/mail. My mail just seemed to disappear. What I did was to
rename all the procmail files and the .forward file so they wouldn't
be used.

I was directed to create the /var/spool/mail/mwagnon file by
"touch"-ing it. I ran fetchmail again and it pulled down about 30
messages, but it took exim something like five minutes place them in
my mail folder.

> Third, can you read mail with other MUA's, such as elm or mailx?  In other
> words, have you decided whether it's a problem with the MUA or the MTA? (Mail
> User Agent, Mail Transport Agent)
> 
> Third, are you using any sort of MDA, such as procmail that could complicate the
> equation at all? (Mail Delivery Agent)

Yeah, but I took that out of the loop (see above)

> /var/spool/mail contains files composed of "mail text" probably in mbox format.
> Anyone else elaborate on this?
> 
> If you upgraded, /var/spool/mail/$USER should have existed before, right?  Don't
> you have a /var/spool/mail/$USER file for your account?  What do you get from $
> file /var/spool/mail/$USER ?

This was a new install (via slink straight to potato) and didn't
notice. It was there on all of my previous installations on other
computers. 

I think all is okay now. I have a /var/spool/mail/mwagnon file, so
that's working. I just need to figure out what happened to my .forward
and procmail stuff to make them act funny.

I think I can handle it, but if I run into trouble, I'll call for
help.

Thanks David, BTW, I always enjoy your ComputorEdge articles!

-- 
                                      __   _ 
Mark Wagnon       (  Debian GNU/ -o) / /  (_)__  __ ____  __    
Chula Vista, CA    )             /\\/ /__/ / _ \/ // /\ \/ /   
mwagnon1@home.com (             _\_v____/_/_//_/\_,_/ /_/\_\